Prevention is Key- Part 1

Today I’d like to chat about one of the most important things you can do for yourself in order to have the best health at the lowest price and that is PREVENTION! Prevention means stopping something from happening in the first place.

Many expensive and painful diseases are actually caused by ourselves, not our genetics. For example, obesity due to overeating and lack of exercise causes us to have diabetes and heart disease. Smoking causes lung cancer. Excessive alcohol drinking causes a myriad of body problems including liver disease, GI problems, and osteoporosis.

So as you can see, it is actually very much in our control to keep ourselves healthy now so that in the future we don’t have to deal with a crappy, painful, expensive disease.

So what are my key tips for staying healthy and preventing disease?

Let’s start with healthy eating. Some of my key recommendations that I practice are below and you can find more in My Health Care Transformation Handbook:

Grocery shop on the periphery of the grocery store. I steer clear of aisles as much as possible! (But also be sure to steer clear of the bakery…)

Eat foods that are found in nature, not made in a factory. Carrots are found in nature. Cheetos came from a factory.

Go to your local farmers market or utilize a market delivery service. My favorite fresh local delivery service is Grubmarket in LA but I love to head over to the Brentwood Farmer’s Market any Sunday that I can.

Don’t store foods from the “avoid list” in your home. For example, I don’t store any desserts in my home. If I want a dessert then I need to walk out of the house and get it. And then guess what. I hardly ever eat desserts 😉

Now second to healthy eating is exercising. Here are some of my key recommendations that I practice and, again, you can find more in My Health Care Transformation Handbook:

Incorporate exercise into your day as much as possible. For me, I make sure to walk or bike anywhere that is within a few miles. I bike to the office. I take the stairs up and down whenever it’s less than six flights. Stay active!

Sign up for a workout class at the beginning of the week – then you can’t bail out that day when you are feeling tired! For me, I plan all my workouts, whether that is running, dancing, yoga, HIIT class, at the beginning of the week so that it is already scheduled and I make my plans around working out.

Also of extreme importance is taking care of your mental health. Having a happy, healthy mental state will help you achieve balance in your nutrition and exercise and vice versa. My key recommendations on how to achieve your best mental health, with more being available in My Handbook:

Document what brings you joy and then manage your time to ensure you are making room for these things. For example, I know that the top things that bring me joy are building relationships and friendships, exercising, being outdoors, and, of course, educating people on health care. So I make a concerted effort to make plans with friends as much as possible, exercise and be outdoors daily, and work on Health Care Transformation as much as possible.

I highly recommend setting some goals and then thinking through any mental barriers you are creating to achieving those goals of living your happiest best life.

And finally, practice healthy habits. Limit your alcohol intake and I don’t think I need to tell you that smoking is bad for you… But I will… Smoking is bad for you.

Now that we have talked through the basics of prevention, take some of these recommendations, set some goals for achieving your best health, and we will chat more about prevention soon!